Thread: Immigrant roundup "a message"

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Immigrant roundup "a message"

BY STEPHEN J. PYTAK
STAFF WRITER
spytak@republicanherald.com
11/17/2006


GORD0N — A year ago today, 125 suspected illegal immigrants were rounded up at Wal-Mart Distribution Center at Highridge Business Park in Butler Township.

The raid drew statewide and national attention, and provided a springboard for the hot-button issue in Schuylkill County in the ensuing 12 months.

“I think it shed some light on it,” Schuylkill County Sheriff Francis V. McAndrew said this week.

It prompted state Rep. Bob Allen, R-125, to become prime sponsor of legislation the House and Senate approved in May which can force local governments, nonprofit groups and businesses to repay state grants if any of it is used to employ illegal immigrants.

And in the past year Mahanoy City, Gilberton, Mahanoy Township and West Mahanoy Township adopted laws designed to weed out illegal immigrants in their communities.

“I think it sent a message,” U.S. Rep. T. Timothy Holden, D-17, said of the raid. “We can’t just turn our heads and excuse 11 million people who don’t play by the rules.”

A November morning

Concerns from the Schuylkill County Building & Construction Trades Council encouraged Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Philadelphia, to conduct the 2½-month investigation which led to the construction-site arrests.

At 8 a.m. Nov. 17, 2005, immigration agents, officials from the U.S. Department of Labor, the Social Security Administration and state police executed federal search warrants on trailers belonging to five subcontracting companies working at the 900,000-square-foot site at the Highridge on 81 Business Park.

The companies were Destin Drywall & Paint Inc., Frazier Drywall, Jan-Ton Concrete, CS Construction Services and Republic Refrigeration, according to the ICE’s Web site.

The 125 alleged illegal immigrants from Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Mexico were transported to a detention center in Philadelphia, placed in removal proceedings, and given the opportunity to have their deportation cases heard by an impartial judge, according to ICE officials.

“Within several days, about 70 were deported and the other ones were given hearings and processed to determine what their status should be. What the final count was, I don’t know, I didn’t check up on that,” McAndrew said.

ICE Public Affairs Officer Ernestine T. Fobbs, Washington D.C., said Thursday she couldn’t account for what happened to the other nearly 55 illegal immigrants.

“When they’re processed, they’re processed as individuals. We had a lot of operations since 2005,” Fobbs said.

Work at the Wal-Mart site came to a standstill for several weeks until replacements were hired, Keith T. Morris, community affairs manager for Wal-Mart Stores Inc., Bentonville, Ark, reported in March.

“The number of people taken off the job site was a fraction of the people who were working there in total,” Frank J. Zukas, executive director of the Schuylkill Economic Development Corporation, Pottsville, said this week.

Zukas estimated there were 550 employees on site at the time, hired by a mix of both union and non-union contractors.

The incident caused a series of delays in the center’s construction timeline.

“It delayed the project by several weeks to say the least,” Zukas said.

The distribution center’s dry goods section was scheduled to open in spring, but didn’t until summer.

“The people that would have been hired in February, March and April to work there were not hired until April, May or June,” Zukas said.

And the center’s frozen food section would have opened in August. “Now it’s not until spring,” Zukas added.

SEDCO expects Wal-Mart will hire 200 to 300 people to work in the frozen foods center in early 2007.

A message left Thursday for Fred Edmonds, the distribution center’s general manager, was not returned.

National issue hits home

There are an estimated 11 million to 12 million illegal immigrants in the United States, between 100,000 to 150,000 in Pennsylvania and several hundred in Schuylkill County, according to various reports.

The federal government’s latest effort at comprehensive immigration reform is the Secure Fence Act, a plan to erect a 700-mile-long fence along the US-Mexican border.

Holden said more border officers need to be hired, and a better guest worker program implemented.

“We need to know where they are working and living. And they must return after a certain period of time to their native country,” Holden said.

While the state has no new proposals, the City of Hazleton has started a trend in immigration enforcement by approving the Illegal Immigration Relief Act in July. It threatened to take away the licences of businesses hiring illegals, and fine landlords giving them shelter $1,000.

In August, the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund and the American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit against the city, and Hazleton approved changes to the act.

Approved Sept. 21., the changes put the burden of verifying immigration status on the municipality and gave businesses and landlords time to correct violations before imposing sanctions. The act is currently being disputed in court.

And while the July 13 version made Hazleton’s official language “English only,” the city removed the topic of language from illegal immigration and approved a separate “Official English Ordinance.”

So far, four municipalities in northern Schuylkill County have followed Hazleton’s lead.

Mahanoy City borough approved the Illegal Immigration Relief Act on Aug. 8, West Mahanoy Township on Aug. 15, Mahanoy Township on Aug. 17 and Gilberton borough on Aug. 24.

“I still feel strongly about it,” Gilberton Mayor Mary Lou Hannon said this week. “I think our federal government should have acted on this long ago.”

Frackville, Shenandoah, East Union Township and Port Carbon are among the municipalities considering it.

What now?

At the county seat, McAndrew deals with illegal immigration by staying in touch with ICE agents, usually via e-mail, he said.

“We’re constantly trying to get their attention, but they only have 4,500 acting agents in the state. You just keep trying to contact them. And we were able to get their attention at the one at Wal-Mart because of the magnitude, 125 in one location,” McAndrew said.

The sheriff insisted there are several hundred illegals still residing in the county, including 12 to 15 suspected illegal aliens in the county prison. Prison Warden Eugene Berdanier said Thursday that five inmates were confirmed illegal aliens by ICE.

“Is there an answer to it? Absolutely,” said the sheriff, who feels state and local police should be deputized for the purpose of enforcing immigration laws. “Can it be eliminated 100 percent? I don’t think so.”

©The REPUBLICAN & Herald 2006

I think it sent a message,” U.S. Rep. T. Timothy Holden, D-17, said of the raid. “We can’t just turn our heads and excuse 11 million people who don’t play by the rules.”

Finally, some more common sense coming from Washington and a Democrat to boot!

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The sheriff insisted there are several hundred illegals still residing in the county, including 12 to 15 suspected illegal aliens in the county prison. Prison Warden Eugene Berdanier said Thursday that five inmates were confirmed illegal aliens by ICE.

I would tell those fellas if they don't come clean about their status, that America has cut a deal with Puten and we are going to drop ship them off to Siberia.

This is insane, one prison doesn't know where 10 inmates come from??????? We have a national security problem folks.

Dixie

Originally Posted by Dixie

The sheriff insisted there are several hundred illegals still residing in the county, including 12 to 15 suspected illegal aliens in the county prison. Prison Warden Eugene Berdanier said Thursday that five inmates were confirmed illegal aliens by ICE.

I would tell those fellas if they don't come clean about their status, that America has cut a deal with Puten and we are going to drop ship them off to Siberia.

This is insane, one prison doesn't know where 10 inmates come from??????? We have a national security problem folks.

Dixie

And we Have a National Security problem for a purpose.
What does it take for people to use common sense and figure this out? A freaking tank to fall on their heads?

This problem exists for a reason & has existed for quite a time period.........there is an agenda. It didn't just happen out of the clear blue.
It was allowed to happen.

.

It utterly amazes me that when these people are arrested that no one checks their status considering most if not all of them do not speak english. Our state and local police departments have been told not to check status when they arrest these people. Our courthouses are full of them being processed for cases against them and they do not speak a word of english. It is so ludicrous!!!